


Something There

by SailorLestrade



Series: Requests [9]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: But it Gets cute, Homelessness, I swear, Sherlock is a bit out of character, kinda sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 06:09:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2640998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorLestrade/pseuds/SailorLestrade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on an OC from a friend. Cari has no one. But what if someone comes along and changed everything?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something There

The first time she ran into them, they were just coming back from a case and she felt brave enough to not hug the wall. Well, that ended up with her on the ground in front of two gentlemen. 

“Sorry.” She whimpered as she picked herself up and dusted herself off. They took her appearance in. Long black hair, pouty lips, an oversized jumper on her small frame, and one brown eye and one milky grey eye.

“Are you alright miss?” The shorter of the two asked. He was about her size with sandy brown hair. The other one, the one with the mop of black curly hair, just stared at her. When the shorter man reached out a hand to help her, she flinched away.

“I’m fine, thanks.” She quickly grabbed the bag that had fallen off her shoulder in the accident and scurried away. The two men looked at each other, shrugged, and then went on their way, thinking they would never see her again.

****

The second time she ran into them was when she was leaving the homeless shelter and they were coming into it. She noticed the other residents of the shelter seemed to go quiet and stand up a little straighter when that man with the curly hair came in. She was so busy focusing on him with her good eye that she didn’t notice she had walked into the shorter man.

“I’m so sorry.” She murmured. He smiled.

“Well, if we’re going to keep doing this, my name is John.” He said, offering his hand. She took it and he brought it to his lips and gently kissed it. He noticed the blush that crept across her cheeks.

“I-I’m Cariad.” She whispered. “But my friends called me Cari.” He smiled at her.

“Well, Cari, I hope that I’m your friend.” He said. That’s when the other man grabbed him by his arm.

“Come on John! I got the information I need.” He said, pulling him away from Cari. John managed to wave bye to her before him and his friend, which Cari now figured was the great and powerful Sherlock Holmes, disappeared from the building. She could hear one of the others saying that tonight drinks were on her, but she didn’t really care. She slipped out of the shelter to go for a walk through the park, hoping to find things to add to her collection.

****

The third time she ran into them, it was cold and snowing. Almost three months since they had last been to the shelter when she had been there. Well, this time it wasn’t them. It was just him. Sherlock Holmes. All by himself today.

She had been singing while she walked, trying to cheer herself up. Her depression had hit a new level today and she wanted to stay out of the shelter for as long as she could today. She was shivering, because she didn’t have a good coat, and was relying on her jumpers to keep her warm. She was singing “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeren. It was her cheer up song and the thought of being snuggled up by a roaring fire kept her warm.

He saw her and stopped in his tracks so she would run into him. He wanted to see why John was constantly so worried about her. He didn’t even really know the girl. Sherlock said it was sentiment. John said it was being a good person.

“You look sad.” Sherlock said as she ran into him. She gasped and jumped back, then looked up at him. “Did you think I couldn’t see you?”

“I…I’m sorry Mr. Holmes.” She said. He smirked.

“So you do know who I am.” He said. She nodded.

“We all know who you are.” She said softly. He saw the way she was trembling. He noticed then that she wasn’t wearing a coat, and her jumper and jeans both looked like they had seen better days.

“Why are you out?” He asked, taking off his scarf and wrapping it around her exposed neck. She looked up at him confused. He waited for her answer.

“I just had to get away.” She said quietly. He could hear her stomach growling.

“Come with me.” He said, going to grab her arm but she pulled back. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

“A lot of people promise things.” She said. He looked at her staring there, black hair covered in snow, ungodly skinny and shivering. He wanted to deduce her so bad, to figure out all her secrets right then and there, but there was something about her that made him stop and reconsider that choice. That was something that not even John could do.

“You need to eat.” Sherlock said. “I know this great little Italian place. My treat.” She looked up at him. He smiled one of his little smiles and she giggled.

“I guess I could go for Italian.” She said. He smiled and undid his coat, letting the heavy fabric rest on her shoulders. She looked up at him, questioning.

“I’ve been a lot colder with a lot less clothes.” Sherlock said casually. He gently put his hand on her upper back and led her to the main road, where he got a cab and rattled off the address. Sherlock felt something for this girl. Something that he hadn’t felt since Redbeard. Love? Compassion? He wasn’t sure what it was, he just knew she needed his help in a not case like way.

He didn’t know just how right he was.

****

He took her to Angelo’s and let her order anything she wanted. She ordered some simple pasta and cheesy garlic bread, but when her stomach growled after eating that, Sherlock ordered them each a piece of cake.

“Thank you for all of this.” She said quietly. Sherlock smiled at the teenager.

“I always wanted someone to help me when I was living on the streets for a while.” Sherlock said. “Unfortunately, my brother decided to be the one who did.” She smiled softly. “So, I’m assuming you don’t have any family since you’re staying in a homeless shelter…” Her smile faltered then.

“I…no.” She said. “My parents died when I was just two.” She moved her jumped so that Sherlock was looking at her bare shoulder. Tattooed there were three birds. “I got these for my sixteenth birthday. They represent me, my mom, and my dad.” Sherlock nodded. He did deduce her a little bit and figured that much. He didn’t know she was that young. She wiped her eyes with her napkin. “Sorry for crying.”

“Normally, I would probably be very arrogant to whoever was crying, but in your case, all I can say is its okay to let it out.” Sherlock said. She smiled at him again. She looked outside.

“It’s starting to get dark.” She said. “I won’t make it back to the shelter.”

“I will get you a cab.” Sherlock said. “Unless you’d be willing to come stay at my flat. I have an extra bed since John moved out.”

“I better get back to the shelter.” She said. “Thank you for everything Mr. Holmes.”

“Please, call me Sherlock.” He said. She smiled at him and followed him back outside. He stopped a cab and they both got in. They made small talk on the way back to the shelter. She got out and waved goodbye to him before going inside.

“Well, well, well.” Someone said. Her back went straight. “What do we have here? Pretty girl thinks she can just waltz in here and steal the money from us?”

“What are you talking about?” She asked, noticing the angry looking residents.

“Getting all nice and chummy with Sherlock Holmes, eh?” A muscular looking woman said. “Think you can just swoop in and keep all his money for yourself, right?”

“No.” She said, backing up against a wall. “He’s just a nice man. That’s all.” They all started laughing at her.

“Sherlock Holmes is a bloody psychopath.” One man said. “You’re probably just an experiment. He doesn’t care about you.”

“I think we should teach her to stay away from Sherlock Holmes.” One of the smaller ones said. And they all moved on her at once, making her cry out.

She hated it here.

****

She ran into the boys about a week later, the bruises on her face slowly fading. She had left the shelter, left the few friends she had. Everything she owned was in her knapsack. Her button collection was about it, but there were a lot of them. She had been crying, which clouded her good eye, so she didn’t see them. She didn’t say sorry this time. She just set there, crying. Sherlock was instantly at her side.

“What happened?” He demanded. She just kept crying. “Cari!”

“Sherlock, you’re scaring her.” John said. But he noticed then that Cari had buried herself in Sherlock’s chest.

“They got mad…” She cried.

“Who did?” Sherlock asked.

“The others…” She whimpered. Sherlock easily picked up the skinny girl in his arms.

“You’re not going back there.” Sherlock said. “You can have John’s old room. We’ll clean it out and it’s yours.”

“I don’t want to impose…”

“Hush.” Sherlock said. “Come on John. I will need your help.”

****

Once Cari was settled at Baker Street with a cup of tea and some clean clothes, John and Sherlock set out to get things for her room. They got bedding and other various things in her favorite shade of blue. Sherlock promised her that he would take her shopping for some new clothes. He promised her that he would get her a closet full. So many, that she wouldn’t have to wear the same outfit over for months.

Cari was worried that Sherlock wouldn’t accept her because of her vision. He did have John examine her to make sure she was healthy, but other than that, he accepted her with open arms. John had never seen Sherlock so loving of another person before. He just knew that Cari was going to do the consulting detective some good.

Sherlock got Cari a tutor to help her catch up in school, because he figured that she had stopped going about the time she turned fifteen, and he was right. She learned quickly though and was a brilliant young pupil. Sherlock swore that she was a lot like him, even though she wasn’t related by blood. They were a lot alike and they were all each other had.

Cari was there for Sherlock during his dark periods, where the only answer seemed to be the drugs. She was used to his long periods of silence in his mind palace, where she would play video games or teach herself the violin, because you could only play so many video games for so long with one eye. If it hadn’t been for her living with him, he would’ve relapsed a long time ago, and for that, he was forever in her debt.

Sherlock was there for her when she finally put herself out there and got hurt. She had started to date and thought she found the perfect guy, but he broke her heart in the end. And while it hurt her, Sherlock rattled off all kinds of deductions on how he would end up losing his hair and gaining fifty pounds before he was forty. That made her smile and she hugged him.

He took her with him on trips. It was no longer Holmes and Watson, but Sherlock and Cari. Cariad Holmes. Everyone adored her, even the cops at Scotland Yard who had originally wanted to protect her by getting her away from Sherlock. But they saw the love that Sherlock gave the young woman who grew up with nothing, and they knew that it wouldn’t be right to deny her that love all over again.

John came around and used Cari as practice for his daughter. He learned how to braid hair while she set on the floor in front of him, eyes closed. Sherlock watched, amused, as John practiced painting nails on her. At first, it was sloppy and uncoordinated, but after a few times, he got the hang of it, so he would be ready for when the baby came.

Cari didn’t like to talk about her past, and Sherlock never pushed it. He already knew quite a bit anyway, and Cari knew that he knew. But they had a silent agreement to not bring that stuff up. And it worked out great for the both of them. They had their demons they had exercised a long time ago. They wanted it to stay that way.

****

After a long and stressful day, Sherlock came home from Scotland Yard and saw the light was still on in Cari’s room. He went to the door and knocked. He didn’t receive and answer, so he opened the door to see her fast asleep in bed, a book resting in her lap. Sherlock smiled and took the book, carefully tucking her bookmark into it, and set it on the night stand. He put her blankets up to her chest and she burrowed her way into them. Sherlock kissed her forehead, turned out the light, and started to leave. But something made him stop. Some simple words that made his heart swell with pride and his eyes tear up.

“Good night dad.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my friend's idea of Cari: http://teamfreewillangel.deviantart.com/art/Cariad-Homeless-Open-for-RP-464629925
> 
> Hope that you liked this. I'm not great with established OC's lol


End file.
